Aurora R6, slow performance after restore

Question

I have an Alienware Aurora R6 with a 256MB SSD and a 1TB sata. I began suddenly seeing very slow performance and figured I should just start from scratch. I used the Dell restore USB and I am running the Windows updates now. The computer seems to still be running extra slow, meaning I will click on start and there is a delay in the start menu coming up. I looked at the drives and it looks like the boot drive is set to now and C: is the data drive. That is not the way it was when shipped. How can I test to see if I need a new hard drive? Is there a way to change my boot drive letters around? Booting from the SSD is supposed to be faster, but I am a bit confused about the drive letter assignment. I hope I am making sense.

redxps630 · Accepted Answer

Re: figured I should just start from scratch.

if you are willing to start from a clean slate and lose all data, remove hdd, leave only ssd connected in pc, do a fresh clean install of 10 using bootable usb media prepared by MS media creation tool. Clean install means delete all old partitions on ssd and create new partition followed by format.

redxps630 · Accepted Answer

If you are talking about old partitions on ssd before your clean install, delete all of them (not some) until you have one unallocated space left.  Then click new to let Win 10 create new partitions for you, click format on the default partition it highlights, click next to proceed w install.

RodsterB · Answer

Perhaps with the drive swap assignment it's possible you reinstalled Windows on the SATA drive and not the SSD drive? Who is the mfg of the SSD? There are tools available that will check the health of the SSD drive. Here's a utility that checks the SSD health. It has a 7 day trial. https://ssd-life.com

It's also possible that something changed in the BIOS and your PC drives swapped because it switched from RAID to AHCI. That's happened to me on my Aurora R10.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Like @RodsterB suggested, maybe the machine got restored incorrectly, and now the slower-spinning 2.5inch hard-drive is now the boot drive.

I suggest you:

- Shut-down, un-plug from wall.
- Temporarily disconnect 2.5inch SATA 1-tb HDD.

Now, try your Restore again (with only 256gb SSD still connected).

hobbygirl · Answer

Trying this now

Vanadiel · Answer

If you used the DELL recovery that is normal.

hobbygirl · Answer

For some reason, the install has 5 partitions. Can't I delete some of them?

hobbygirl · Answer

Thanks for your help everyone. I was able to disconnect the sata drive, delete the partitions, install Windows, and I am back up and running!

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Aurora R6, slow performance after restore

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